Claims of the missionary enterprise on the medical profession : an address delivered before the Temperance Society of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New York, October 28, 1842 / by Daniel J. Macgowan.

  • Macgowan, Daniel Jerome, 1815-1893.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Claims of the missionary enterprise on the medical profession : an address delivered before the Temperance Society of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New York, October 28, 1842 / by Daniel J. Macgowan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    22/28
    physician of considerable celebrity in former days, but more eminent as a profound thinker, upon whose style Johnson's was modelled in some measure, says in his Religio Medici, I never hear of a person dying, though in my mirth, without my prayers and best wishes for the departing spirit, I cannot go to cure the bodies of my patients, but I forget my profession and call unto God for his soul. Melchior Adam, an old German author, wrote an interesting biography of pious physicians. Sydenham was a decided chris- tian. Hoffman and Stahl were not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Of Boerhaave, it is said by Johnson, the great moralist and philosopher of England, in his biography of that physician, as soon as he rose in the morning, it was throughout his whole life his daily practice to retire for one hour for private prayer and meditation. He often declared that a slrict obedience to the doctrine, and a diligent imitation of the example of our blessed Saviour, was the foundation of true tranquillity. Sydenham could say, the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Dr. Hartley, so celebrated as a profound metaphysician, was equally pious. So also was Dr. Fothergill. Hey, the surgeon, was as ce- lebrated for his piety as for his genius. Zimmerman, when called into Prussia by Frederick the Great to prescribe for him in his last illness, made every effort to convince the unhappy monarch of his fatal errors, and urged him to believe in the Saviour. In like manner we might cite a host of names of distinguished European physicians, whose precepts and example, afford conclu- sive evidence that our science fosters, rather than checks religious feeling,—such for instance as Linnaeus, Jenner, Denman, Stil- ling,* Sir Charles Bell,t GoodJ and others. Dr. Rush, who refers * In the general declension of piety that overspread the churches and schools of Germany, much was done to counteract the growing irreligion by Jung Stilling, a friend of Goethe, who in his memoirs alludes to him, as a singular example of trust in Divine Providence. Although educated as a physician, he was not distinguished in the walks of his own profession except as an oculist. In this branch his prac- tice was most extensive and successful. His chief labors were directed to other objects of general literature and religion. t This great physiologist is the author of one of the Bridgewater Treatises on the Mechanism of the Hand as illustrating the Wisdom and Goodness of God. t The following memorandum and prayer having been found among the late Dr. Good's papers, are annexed to his work, in compliance with the directions which he left on the subject. July 27, 1823. Form of Prayer, 1 i Which I purpose to use, among others, every morning so long as it may please God